• CLIMATE CHANGE
• SPECIAL REPORT

The 28th UN Conference of the Parties Climate Summit – a users' guide

How to navigate the facts, the figures and the declarations | By Tim Concannon and Jerry Sam in Accra and Caroline Chebet in Nairobi

The UN's COP summits are a marathon – even by the standards of other international summits organised by the UN, the IMF and sundry regional organisations.

This year's summit – COP28 in Dubai – is already an epic in terms of the over 90,000 people that have registered as delegates.

It opened on 30 November and is due to run until at least midnight on 16 December when the hosts, the United Arab Emirates, will release the final communiqué and roster of financial pledges and declarations of policy actions from the nearly 200 nations participating.

This dossier offers a point by point guide to the key issues under discussion – from the debate over the Loss and Damage Fund and the need for a global carbon tax to whether the final declaration will include an agreement to 'phase-down'  (as the hydrocarbon economies want) or 'phase out' (as the climate activists want) of fossil fuel production.

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